In the name of Fun, I bid thee farely well...

No, I swear, it's true... all of it!

In high school, I was a solid, not spectacular, but solid cross country runner who was recruited by a few small schools in Michigan to run in college.  I actually received recruiting letters and got calls from coaches.  It’s one of my proudest achievements in life.  When I spoke to the coaches, I told them all the same thing - “I really appreciate the opportunity, but I think I need a break from running.”  Why?  Because running just wasn’t that fun anymore.  Spring track season was awesome, made state finals in the 4x800, and I have absolutely no regrets and nothing but true blessings about what running has done for my life - especially the life-long friendships I made on those teams.  But running just wasn’t fun anymore.

The wife had a similar experience with soccer, and we’ve pledged to have the same philosophy with our kids - you’ll always be doing something, but first and foremost, have fun.  You should love what you’re doing, because it’s fun to be around your teammates, your friends, the competition.  Let’s face it - I wasn't about to be Prefontaine and the wife wasn’t about to be Mia Hamm.  Sports should make your life better, not drag it down.

I’ve carried that philosophy of fun into my life, and in that vein, I’m here to tell you this will be my final post to Logical Betting.  Why?  Because it’s finally tilted more towards work and less towards fun.  You’ll notice I haven’t posted since September, despite many, many good ideas in my head.  But it just didn’t sound like fun anymore.  

This post, however, was fun.  Here are the (long) ramblings I came upon while saying goodbye to something I am proud to have created, and who knows, may pick back up one day.  No links or side pics this time (just some cool pics at the end), just going to enjoy the writing part and get rid of the work this last time.  Predictably, there are A LOT of lists...

- I was gonna do a post on the 5 best days of my life.  I solicited Fah and Mojo to help (Fah’s lazy ass never wrote back), but mine and Mojo’s were similar.  He had the day he got married, the birth of his two children, the day he graduated from Cornell (thereby devaluing every other degree ever given by the school), and some other day I can’t remember.  My Top 5?

1.  and 2. (tie) - Birth of my kids

3.  The day I got married

4.  The day I was accepted to Boston College School of Social Work

5.  Honestly, this was a tie between hundreds and hundreds of days in my life, the days I spent with friends and family, just enjoying life and each other.  Recent examples - The Lions/Eagles snow game with Mojo, another friend from the D who flew in for the game, and one of my best friends in Philly; the "Tuesday at the Crossings" reunion with all my friends every summer; July 4th at Fah’s cottage in MI last summer; New Year’s Eve 2013 with the kids and two other families; ARG’s first Christmas Concert; LB Jr.’s learning to walk at 9 months; and every Tigers road trip me and my friends in the D met up on, especially Baltimore (a picture from the Saturday night post bar trip still sits on my desk). Just reading that list makes me feel humbled and blessed. You should try and make your own list some time... I found it very nostalgic and I think Mojo did, too.

- The LB Super Bowl pick - current line as of Friday, 1/24 - Denver -2.5.  So here’s some random information about that line… it started at Seattle -2 and got swung 4.5 points in like a day, which is unheard of; the current money line betting is essentially equal on both sides (Denver -110, Seattle -105).  The wife’s initial guess at the line?  Denver -7.  Mine?  Denver -6.5.  So I initially saw that as a Seattle line, and I still do.  When you look at the facts of this game (strength of schedule, recent play, weather, etc.), Seattle should be favored.  However, Russell Wilson scares me; Seattle has gotten a few breaks, especially in that Niners game (side note - is it me, or is San Francisco actually the best team in the league?); isn’t Seattle going to need to score 24 points to win that game?  Cause if so, I don’t think they can; and would you bet against Peyton Manning this year?  Me neither… LB is calling for a classic, and hoping ARG makes it through the game and gets addicted to football.  

The Pick - Denver 24, Seattle 20.

- Three times this fall I got this question, “wait, what NFL team to do you root for again?”  And each time, my answer was, “the Bears, but I also like the Browns, Eagles, and Lions… honestly, I don’t really know.”  So I tried to figure it out by answering two questions… 1. Who would I most want to see win a Super Bowl? and 2. Who would I want to win in Super Bowl matchups involving those teams, which is really the Browns vs. any of the other three in the NFC.  So here’s what I came up with…

1.  The Browns.

2.  Matchups - Bears over Browns, Browns over Eagles, Browns just slightly over Lions, but I’d be happy either way.

See my problem?  Those are my dead honest answers, and they completely contradict each other… I can’t answer this, only that I love the NFL, root for a lot of different teams, and own both a Bears and Browns t-shirt and couldn’t see myself wearing any other team’s gear.  

- The 1997 Michigan v. Ohio State game where Charles Woodson single handedly beat the Suckeyes was the best sporting event I ever attended until the Lions v. Eagles snow game in Philly.  So freaking awesome.  Me and the boys got drunk the night before watching Sparty smoke Ohio St. in the Big 10 championship before heading over for the game.  We also learned how to spell D’Antonio that night, right Mojo?

Side Note - we told my other friend to meet at my place at 8am to head over to tailgate.  Wisely, he had been checking our Facebook posts from the bar the night before.  He texted at 810 “you guys ready?”  We replied at 815 “just waking up.”  He said, “good, hadn’t left, will stop at bank then come over.”  That’s why he’s the smart one. Best quote from the "night" - the next day, I was like, "we definitely didn't need that 2nd shot." My buddies both looked at me and go, "what 2nd shot?"

Anyways, the snow came in about 6 hours before the weather people said it would (shocking a weatherperson got something wrong…), leading to a snow filled, unable to text pictures cause our phones got so wet so fast, awesome time.  Our beers had like 2 inches of snow on them, making them slushes.  Our beers were getting COLDER outside the cooler.  Mojo’s portable grill freaking rocked it out in the snow.  And we had 8th row, 50 yard line seats, courtesy of my friends’ brother.  A special thanks to my wife for watching the kids Saturday night into Sunday, and another special thanks and apology to ARG for waking her up when we stumbled loudly into the house Saturday night.  She crashed right back out.

- Did you know there are now only 3 Boyz in Boyz to Men?  What the hell happened, did Old Spice smell one of them into manhood or something?

- Went to Army v. Navy the following weekend (more thanks to the wife).  Holy shit was it cold.  Met some of Mojo’s cadets.  Really weird to see 22 year old recently graduated female cadets calling him “sir.”  Not sure that’ll ever not be strange.  22 degrees and sleeting, with a ticket upgrade courtsey of J.B.’s sister’s boyfriend.  Army lost.  Again.  Mojo was cool with it this time.  Still one of the coolest sporting events you can attend.  Get it on your sports bucket list.

Even in writing this post, the theme and purpose of this blog keeps coming out… sports (and in many ways, this blog), have been a way for me to stay connected to long distance friends and family, connect with new lifelong friends and family here in Philly, and share a bit of my Detroit world with Philly, and vice versa.  And really, that’s what sports is and should be about.  Uniting us all in competition and fun, creating lasting memories, and most importantly, strengthening us as individuals, families, and a society, in a forum where we really don’t have to take things too seriously.

Thanks to all of you who have contributed, whether it be through creative feedback, ghost writing, sharing ideas, and most importantly, being a part of my and my family’s life.  We are truly blessed to have all of you around us and I personally appreciate the time you took to read the blog, whether you read it just once or every time.  And I am appreciative of this space... I got to do everything from coming up with goofy lists of bad babysitters to providing a space to pay tribute to my oldest friend's father when I was, very sadly and regrettably, unable to attend the funeral.

Tears... I mean, beers! Time for one final Logical Betting list!  The Top 5 pictures in LB history, including two new entries!

5.  So many good reasons for the M to be here… the place I met LB’s most beloved other character, the wife; the home of my 2nd and 3rd most beloved sports teams, Mich football and basketball; all the memories and opportunities from a good education there; and, perhaps most importantly, completely annoying all the Sparty and Notre Dame Fighting Chickens fans who read me regularly…

Hail!

4.  From one of my favorite posts, the MVPs of your house, I got this picture Googling "couches."  And this is what the Internets brought me.  I think the picture speaks for itself.

You just can't make these things up...

3.  Here are two pictures from two recent days tied for 5th in my Top 5 of all time.  These are taken from the exact same spot in a parking lot across from Lincoln Financial Field, 6 days apart - one during the Eagles/Lions tailgate, the other while I was walking to meet Mojo for the Army/Navy tailgate.  If you look close in the first one, you can just make out the lights at the Linc.

Eagles v. Lions

Army v. Navy

2.  Posting this reminded me of my hometown, the loyalty that permeates the D and Philly, and my undying love for my Tigers.  And yes, I followed them the year they almost set the loss record.  True story - I was living in Boston that year, and the Tigers were leading their last game of the year to avoid being the worst team ever.  I called the Dawg back home, and he generously provided over the phone, play by play of our “victory.”  I was cheering loudly on the balcony during some random party, and I could hear a bunch of people celebrating at the bar back home.  “We aren’t the worst!!!”  Only in sports…

D-Town!

1.  The only picture to make it in every post.  Reminds us that, ultimately, we are all on the same team.  Land of the free, because of the brave.

Thanks again to all of you who have read Logical Betting over the years.  A very special thanks to Fah T. for helping with the redesign back in the day, eliciting the critical feedback that significantly increased our readership, and for help with the Twitter page.  And to Mojo for being our most dedicated reader, frequent author and idea-giver, and contributor.  I will keep up the Twitter feed, so keep following at twitter.com/logicalbetting.  Otherwise, you know how to stay in touch.  I’ll let you know if we ever get going with regular posts again.  Be well, cheers!  Hasta.